Allow variables to be set on fixtures from the command line

Author: Vasileios Karakasis

reframe/core/meta.py

@@ -535,6 +535,17 @@ def setvar(cls, name, value):
 
         '''
 
+        if '.' in name:
+            # `name` refers to a fixture variable
+            fixtname, varname = name.split('.', maxsplit=1)
+            try:
+                fixt_space = super().__getattribute__('_rfm_fixture_space')
+            except AttributeError:
+                '''Catch early access attempt to the variable space.'''
+
+            if fixtname in fixt_space:
+                return fixt_space[fixtname].cls.setvar(varname, value)
+
         try:
             var_space = super().__getattribute__('_rfm_var_space')
             if name in var_space:

reframe/core/variables.py

@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ def __getattr__(self, name):
     def _check_is_defined(self):
         if not self.is_defined():
             raise ReframeSyntaxError(
-                f'variable {self._name} is not assigned a value'
+                f'variable {self._name!r} is not assigned a value'
             )
 
     def __repr__(self):

unittests/test_cli.py

@@ -845,8 +845,9 @@ def test_external_vars(run_reframe):
                       '-S', 'foolist=3,4',
                       '-S', 'bar=@none']
     )
+    assert 'PASSED' in stdout
+    assert 'Ran 6/6 test case(s)' in stdout
     assert 'Traceback' not in stdout
-    assert 'Ran 2/2 test case(s)' in stdout
     assert 'Traceback' not in stderr
     assert returncode == 0